Teachers

Helping teachers meet the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is important to us. Created by teachers for teachers, our free NGSS and Common Core aligned lessons are made to work in the classroom. Check back often – we keep adding more.

Scroll down for helpful links to other free water science lessons and resources.

Students will read and analyze informational pieces on pros and cons of dam projects and discuss with the group the environmental tradeoffs of using such systems, including water storage for human and agricultural uses, power generation, damage to ecosystems, decreased greenhouse gasses, etc. Students will write their recommendation for or against the Three River Gorge project using evidence to support their claims. They will discuss as a class how smaller dam projects are similar and different to larger projects and how that information affects their opinion on those projects

Students will identify the difference between distillation and reverse osmosis. They will construct a functioning distiller then design and perform an experiment to analyze the efficiency of the apparatus.

Students will research, create and discuss various types of water desalination and evaluate them for potential use in large scale production in terms of benefits to humans and associated environmental costs. In an extension of this lab, students will test how osmosis works, then build a small scale solar still to observe a simple desalination process.

Students will collect and analyze data about water, produce graphs and images to draw conclusions about the purpose of water and its uses and ways to conserve water. Students will design a simple survey and then collect data from the survey.

Students will learn about the right to pump groundwater and extract water from rivers. They will investigate and identify major American aquifers, then draw conclusions about their use and depletion rate. In a second exercise, students will investigate the major dams of the Colorado River and their use. In both exercises, students will create a map that serves as a visual aid to illustrate the issue at hand. They will then write a persuasive essay in which they will describe existing rules and solutions, and voice their own opinion with substantiated argumentation.

Students will make a model of the water cycle, identify the various reservoirs, and predict the paths of water through the reservoirs. They will determine which reservoirs can be exploited for human consumption, as well as which are renewable, and which are being depleted. They will review different water uses (drinking water, agriculture, industrial uses, etc.), different means of water extraction, and will research and present the cost and feasibility of extracting water for different regions of the U.S. and different countries of the world. They will practice systemic thinking (balanced systems, inputs, outputs) and will use schematics and pie charts to analyze and share their results in a visually appealing and relevant way.

Students will make a model of a water molecule and explain why it is bipolar. Identify properties of saltwater. In a collaborative group, design and construct a method for testing the salinity o f saltwater.